Editor's Note: The following message is the most recent posted on Barbara Yoder's new blog, which you can find at barbarayoderblog.com. The original title of the word is "We Are Contending."

We are in a season of contending. We must contend past the deception that has tried to mislead us. Deception blinds us from seeing what the real issue is, and hope deferred feeds deception. It feeds the faithless, half-empty-glass syndrome. I believe we are coming out of a season in which hope deferred seemed to abound.

Deception is part of the resistance that we have to overcome. It causes us to think, There are all kinds of reasons I can't break through this: "God doesn't care." "It's too hard." "I can't do it." "What did I do wrong?"

Deception tells us, "God hasn't come through before, so why would He now? And if He cares so much, why have things been so difficult during this season—and why has it hung around for two years? Why did God let this or that happen? He must not care." On and on the voice speaks.

On Sunday, August 16, I heard the Spirit of God say, "Some of you have had the fight knocked out of you. The Spirit of God is bringing a new wind of strength to cause a new fight to rise up in you. The fight has been knocked out of you because you stayed in an atmosphere too long."

Anne Tate began to prophesy: "At this time I am breaking old associations and configurations. ..."

I then heard the Lord say: "Rise up! Let My atmosphere rise up around you and cut the ties necessary so that I can cause you to fight again and be set into a changing wind. I am breaking down the old structure you've been protecting. It is you [who] has been protecting an old structure saying, ‘Remake what I'm comfortable in.' I'm breaking that down.

Editor's Note: Today's message from Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda was published in the most recent edition of their Prophetic Perspective newsletter as a message to their friends and partners. I believe it is a powerful prophetic word for us all.

In recent days the Lord has been bringing back to us a prophetic word He gave us previously. He is saying that we are to "wake up Sleeping Beauty." Originally, it was the seed for a great miracle in the life of dear friends of ours, waking a "sleeping beauty" from a diabetic coma, restoring her back to life after doctors pronounced her brain-dead and advised the family to remove her life support.

One word from the glory—"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!"—was all it took to release the resurrection power into the intensive care unit (ICU). The young woman walked out of the hospital three days later, pushing her nurse in a wheelchair!

Miracles are tokens that speak of a bigger strategy, and in the last few weeks the Lord has been quickening this word to us again in the context of our nation, the church and our national heritage. He confirms His word with signs and wonders, and in the last month we have received five similar, dramatic miracles of people awakening out of comas.

Editor's Note: The following message was released by Matt Sorger in his ministry newsletter on June 15. He received a tremendous response to it, and I wanted to make it available to those who haven't yet read it. Though it is not in the form of "Thus saith the Lord," it is an important word of caution for those of us who love the prophetic and may be tempted to seek the spectacular demonstrations of the Holy Spirit over a genuine encounter with God through His Word.

I am witnessing an alarming trend in some of our charismatic circles and services. I travel full time on the road all across the United States and in other parts of the world. Each week I am ministering in another state or nation to a new group of hungry believers wanting to live in the fullness of God's Spirit. Several times in the last few months I have made a disturbing and grievous observation. Before I share it with you, let me give you some of my personal background.

I was saved at the age of 14. I am thankful to have been raised in a solid Bible-preaching, Spirit-filled church. The Word was always given a priority. The necessity of living a holy, sanctified life was always preached with conviction. I took my first steps of walking, living and ministering in the Spirit there.

As a young pastor I was given some room to begin to spread my wings when the anointing and power of God began to move through my life. I took full flight when I launched out from pastoring six years ago to travel full time in a "prophetic revival" ministry.

Editor's Note: The following word is part 35 from a series of messages by prophetic minister Rick Joyner about discerning the times we are living in. You can view the preceding and subsequent messages on his Web site at morningstarministries.org.

Newsweek magazine recently boasted that Christianity in America is dead. This slap in the face to the American church served only to wake it up. Believers took the comment and held it up before the Lord as Hezekiah did with the boasts of the Assyrian general against the Lord (see 2 Kings 19:15-19).

It is encouraging to see Christians responding to the continuous assault from those who hate or reject God. Many of them are arising to proclaim that this is not a post-Christian America but a pre-Christian America because we are going to have a revival in our nation that eclipses all others.

True Christianity does thrive under persecution, but it was hard to imagine just a few months ago how fast Christians in America would unite and mobilize. And that was only in preparation for persecution. When real persecution comes, we can expect an even greater awakening. It is encouraging to see evidence that the body of Christ in America is responding in the right way to the actions against it—resolving to stand with courage and boldness against the rising darkness of the times. In the past, we have had visions of a coming great awakening in America, and now we are seeing proof that there are strong foundations for it to be built on.

Nine years ago I made this declaration: "I spent the first 50 years of my life trying to be balanced. I want to spend the rest of my life trying to be radical." All history shapers are radical, and I believe it's time for believers everywhere to take on this attribute.
12:00AM EDT 7/27/2009

Editor's Note: The following word is a description of a dream the Lord gave evangelist Perry Stone a number of years ago that has significance today. It is a reminder for all believers to continue to pray for the United States. The word was posted on Stone's Web site, Voice of Evangelism, at voe.orgin June.

Several years ago, when Hillary Clinton was a senator for the state of New York, I had a very strong, clear dream. In this dream I was staying in a hotel in a major city (I am uncertain which city it was). I was with a group of young people who were a part of the ministry. As we entered a van, I observed a very large tornado moving toward the heart (downtown) of this city. We were attempting to "get out" before the main storm struck the area.

At early morning prayer [on Tuesday, July 1], I began to prophesy about a very narrow way coming for us. ... Here is a portion of the revelation that came forth prophetically. We could hear the Lord saying:

"A new corridor is forming, and I will narrow your way. You must narrow your desires. I am sanctifying desires and narrowing the corridor through which you will walk.

"You are entering into new alignments and assignments, and coming into a place that will bring you forth into a realm you have not known. You will come from a dark place into light, but the corridor that you have been in is beginning to narrow to push you through into the new.
12:00AM EDT 7/14/2009

Editor's Note: The following word from the Lord was declared by Mark J. Chironna during his June 9, 2009, Institute of Leadership Initiatives. To learn more about this weekly leadership series, go totmtic.com.

"Truly the hungry and the thirsty, in this hour, are seeking water, and they have found none. But I will open up rivers in high places, and I will water the wasteland, and the desert shall blossom like the rose. And I will satisfy your desire in scorched places, for I have seen the journey of My people. I have seen the affliction with which they have been afflicted.

"I have walked with you through your dark places. I have held you and caressed you in your dry places. Yet, because of the nature of the journey in this season, it has been difficult for many to recognize My hand. I would say unto you now, while you cannot see My hand, you do know My voice. Take comfort in the fact that while you are waiting to see My hand of visitation and My hand of vindication, yet you can hear My voice.

The longer I spoke, the stronger the vision came. I was in Jakarta, Indonesia, in July 2007, and I was preaching at three services back-to-back, beginning on a Saturday evening. While I was focused on speaking to the people who were present and sitting there in the congregation, something strange was happening.

It was as if I was someplace far away. I seemed to have tuned into something far beyond this gathering. The audience was attentive, hanging on to every word. Even as I spoke, I found myself wondering, questioning.

I kept seeing this supernatural picture, which the Bible calls a vision, superimposed on what I was viewing with my physical eyes—the people sitting there. Where was I? What was I seeing? What did it mean? How should I respond? How did it affect the people? Did it affect them at all?

Here I was, preaching on the fact that God was doing a "new thing." I felt almost embarrassed because I had expounded on this topic so many times before. A few years earlier, there had been a season when I had not been able to preach anything else. I had preached on it so often and for so long in the past that now I felt as if I were beating a dead horse—except I couldn't not preach it again this time. I couldn't get away from this driving message in my heart: God is doing something new.

Editor's Note:The message below was first published on June 17, 2009, as Today's Prophetic Perspective, an e-newsletter of Shekinah Today Ministries (shekinahtoday.org). The word from the Lord that follows the author's introduction was given to Cindy deVille on May 25, 2009.

I can hear God say, "This is the time!"

It's time to get back in the fight! When we survey biblical history, we see that it was always the victors who took the spoils of war. And those who were defeated either lost their lives or became slaves to their enemies, losing everything.

As God's people, we must never surrender to the forces of darkness and never give in! We must never give up the fight—in our nation, our cities, our churches or our personal lives. To give up or to surrender is to declare our enemy the victor and the conqueror. As God's people, we must surrender only to our God and King.

Editor's Note: The following prophetic word is part of a longer message given by Kim Clement at The Master's Touch International Church (tmtic.com) in Longwood, Florida, on June 6, 2009. It was transcribed from a recording of that Saturday eveningservice.

Some have said, "Summer is going to be filled with judgment." God says, "Though there be earthquakes, though there be hurricanes, I will turn them into signs. I will turn them into signs of wonderment, signs of experience, where people say, ‘Why did the people not die? Why were there so few lives not taken?'

"They will say, ‘Is this truly judgment, or is the earth beginning to sound, is the earth beginning to rebel, is the earth beginning to say, "We want the manifestation of the glory of God; we want the manifestation of God's sons on the earth"'?

Editor's Note:The following video is a portion of an exclusive interview that revivalist Matt Sorger conducted with James Goll at a recent Glory, Signs and Wonders Conference in Long Island, New York. To view the entire interview,click here. It first aired on Sorger's Power for Life television program June 1, 2009, and is titled "Things to Come." Used by permission of Matt Sorger Ministries.

Recently I've heard prophecies that America has just two to three months to turn things around before the judgment comes. Those voices have it wrong. The two to three months applies to a period of time concerning which the Lord spoke to me at the end of last year, and the judgment is not on America, but on the church in this country.

Editor's Note:The following message first appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Unchained!, a quarterly magazine published by Pure Life Ministries (purelifeministries.org). It is still relevant for us today and offers encouragement about the times we are living in. The message is reprinted here with the permission of both the author and the publisher.

God promised to shake everything that can be shaken, and He is not slack about keeping His promises. I don't ever recall a time such as today, when almost everything is being shaken.

We are seeing unprecedented natural catastrophes taking place throughout the earth. It was just a few years ago that a tsunami claimed more than 200,000 lives. And in the spring of 2008, within a week's time, we saw two more disasters in the Far East kill at least another 120,000 people. There is no doubt in my own mind that such events are the promised "birth pangs" Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24.

The United States has not been exempt from this alarming trend. For example, in the first half of 2008 we had more deaths by tornadoes than we have had in any given year for more than two decades. The U.S. economy is fast heading into a recession—maybe even a depression. The almighty dollar, once the benchmark of monetary value throughout the world, has now been surpassed by the euro. As the United States continues to weaken, Muslim terrorists and rogue nations grow stronger.

Editor's Note:Today's Prophetic Insight is a word that was given to Cindy deVille on the morning of the National Day of Prayer, May 7, 2009, and was published on May 12. You can listen to an audio clip of it atshekinahtoday.org. The word is preceded by an introduction from the author.

It was great to see many Christians throughout the land gathering to pray for America on Thursday, May 7, during our National Day of Prayer. As my husband, Darrel, and I began to pray, God began to speak and share His heart with us. As God's people we want to see a great awakening and reformation, but do we realize what we are asking for? Do we understand that this kind of thing does not come without a price, without sacrifice?

When we study the Great Awakenings of old, we see that they were birthed only through much prayer and travail. A little dab will not do us. I believe we are standing on the threshold of the greatest outpouring we have ever seen, an outpouring of the glory of God in the church and then in the earth. This is not a small thing but a great, big thing that God is going to bring forth by His Spirit, and it will require great prayers ascending to the throne of God.

Editor's Note: The following word was released by prophetic minister James Goll earlier this year. For a free MP3 download, go to encountersnetwork.com and click on "Prophetic Insights."

I trust the few thoughts I share below will encourage your heart and stir up your faith. We see in part and prophesy in part—and this is a part of what I am seeing and hearing in the Spirit for 2009 and beyond. I trust it will mesh with the part the Lord is showing you!

It is the year of the woman. Women in ministry and leadership will be released globally across the body of Christ. The two righteous seeds of Michal Ann Goll and Jill Austin have been sown into the ground, and there will be a harvest of women in both spiritual and secular leadership arising to be champions of the poor, justice, prayer and creativity and flowing freely as the prophetic anointing increases.

It is a time when the nine gifts and the nine fruits of the Spirit will come together. Character to carry the gifts will be emphasized, and accountability that empowers will help create new wineskins for the new wine.

Editor's Note: Today's Prophetic Insight is the text from a video blog recently posted on Apostle Dutch Sheets' Web site (dutchsheets.org), with minor modifications. It is a serious call to prayer regarding the culture war in America that we believe every Christian needs to read and respond to.

President Obama has said twice now—in his inaugural address and on a recent trip to Europe—that America is no longer a Christian nation. In fact, he implied in his inaugural address that we never have been a Christian nation, that it was many faiths that shaped and defined who we are as America.

Editor's Note:The following prophetic word was issued by Chuck Pierce on April 9, 2009. It has been abbreviated for the purposes of this e-newsletter. The complete text of the word, originally titled "Prophetic Word Released for a Time Such as This," is available at http://www.glory-of-zion.org/under "Current Overcoming Revelation & Prophetic Prayer Focuses."

The Lord says, "Let the sound of reformation come into you. Feel the brooding of My Spirit over you. ... Fully submit your spirit to gain insight into My plan of reformation.

To believers who are the least bit observant, it is clear that there's a shaking going on within the world's systems, the church's systems and individual believers. The shaking we are experiencing today is a move of God, who wants to live and move and have His being through His people. He wants to change the world through us!